Russia’s Soyuz-2.1V light carrier rocket to be launched by yearend

The first launch of Russia’s Soyuz-2.1V light carrier rocket will take place at the end of 2012

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Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 17 (Itar-Tass) — The first launch of Russia’s Soyuz-2.1V light carrier rocket will take place at the end of 2012, the head of the federal space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, told reporters on Tuesday.

At present, the carrier rocket’s trials are underway.

“If everything goes normal, we will launch Soyuz-2.1V in the fourth quarter of the year,” he said.

“There is already a long queue of potential customers – only commercial launches exceed ten,” Popovkin said. “We worried that it will compete with an Angara light carrier-rocket, but the flow of customers is such that they will compete with each other.”